Dateline London has a strap line ‘Foreign correspondents based in London give an outsider’s view of events in the UK’ but recently the program asked outsiders to discuss Trump, Burma and Syria. It turned out to be a shoddy affair with none of the outsiders having any real idea of the concrete situation in the Middle East. It obscured more than it elucidated.

Simon Leys demonstrated that the BBC obviously did not run to an accurate briefing before he took to the air. After a piece where he referred to the situation in Burma as ‘bordering on genocide’, the anchor of Dateline London ‘turned to a subject which has dropped out of the headlines’, Syria and Iraq. Referring to this ‘important on-going story’ or ‘saga’, the temporally challenged Leys categorised the ‘fightback’ against the movement which calls itself the Islamic State as ‘going on for more than a year’.

He stated that the Governments of Iraq and Syria were both claiming to have wrested territory from ISIS, before turning to the studio guests to provide expert commentary. In his opening remarks, Leys had asked ‘How’s the fight really going?’.

Nesrine Malik, a Sudanese journalist, Vincent Magombe, Director of the African Journalists Network and Bronwen Maddox of the think-tank the Institute for Government, have no track record in reporting the Middle East. The fourth journo was Michael Goldfarb. He covered the Iraq War as an independent reporter in Iraqi Kurdistan. You would have thought he would have known a modicum about Syria or Iraq but he too demonstrated an incoherent and sketchy understanding of the current situation.

Leys indicated that ISIS is losing territory and the Governments of Syria and Iraq are reclaiming it. He turns to Malik. ‘Nesrine. Its a process you’ve been watching closely for many months now. How do we know whether its working and at what price is this war being waged?’

Ms Malik informed us among other things that ISIS had lost two big cities in Syria and Iraq. Mosul was one. ‘Raqqa is under siege at the moment’ she said, and with considerable but non-specific insight announced that there was to be an ‘upcoming huge battle in a town in Iraq’, the name of which she did not divulge.

She had two points to make. The first was that the end of the Daesh flagship capital meant ‘a vacuum is being created now that ISIS has gone’ ,

Picture from http://kurdishquestion.com/article/3920-ypg-and-ypj-revolutionists-or-pawns-of-the-empire

Shaun interjected to emphatically agree that ‘Vacuums are dangerous things’.

The second strange point was a bemusing non-sequitor that ‘most of these Hinterlands are so ungovernable that ISIS leaving a city or a town does not mean that pockets of them don’t exist’. She had spoken about atrocities that ISIS continued to inflict, despite the fact that they were facing defeat.

Nesrine Malik was unafraid of enunciating even sloppier statements. She then went back to a second second point. The new second point – really probably the third point – was that ‘There are now three parties. The US, America and Arab League sort of soldiers’ (sic) causing casualties.

Whilst accepting that she probably didn’t mean to confuse the US and Americans as separate entities, there really is no excuse for the reference to ‘Arab League sort of soldiers’. It was an excruciating moment.

A cursory examination of the role of the Arab League demonstrates its marginal importance and real impotence as an organisation, since it in fact has no military capacity.

The Arab League suspended Syrian membership in 2011 because of Assad’s killing of demonstrators, and its Peace initiatives floundered the same year. Its monitoring mission in Syria was described as a ‘farce’ and was suspended in 2012. The Egypt Summit in 2015 agreed in principle that the AL form a military force but to date that has not materialised. In March this year, the AL could do little more than lamely ‘urge Arab Governments to do more to resolve the conflict in Syria’.

So there never have been and are currently no Arab League forces in Syria because Arab League troops are only a figment in Ms Malik’s imagination and as an entity, were hesitantly plucked out of thin air, as she struggled to identify just who the chief fighting forces in Syria actually were.

It was just a straightforward exposure of ignorance. More rigour, and less blather please Ms Malik.

Later on in the program Bronwen Maddox agreed. ‘There is this vacuum’.

Michael was not sure if there was a strategy. At the military level he noted that there is the ‘degradation of ISIS’ and ‘at the other end we have…of what we used to call the chaos of the great powers. Russia’s involved. America’s involved. Turkey which is a NATO ally. This week it was announced they are buying Russian high-tech computers and military equipment. So whose…Where is the organisation at the top. No organisation at the top and at the bottom, there are people, who are, I mean the fighting goes on there as before, except that ISIS is being pushed out and it’s just bleeding away into other places and can as Nesrine mentioned it can jump on any pilgrimage site in the Shia heart of Iraq, if it wants to, but can it rule anything, can it make inroads anywhere, can it send forth, they’re claiming this idiot bombing yesterday in London…’ and at that point Shaun Leys excitedly jumps in to continue a point about ISIS claiming responsibility for bombings which is then echoed by Maddox.

Nobody seemed to have noticed that Michael was blathering and had just gone off-piste. Left for another 30 seconds, he would have been analysing pension plans.

Maddox having joined in with the off-piste party went back to the problem of ‘the vacuum’, and whether the Shia crescent from Iran to Lebanon will be established. She says that ‘there’s a bit more space for that kind of thing’ (my emphasis). Does ‘that kind of thing’ inspire confidence and imply any erudition?

Vincent Magombe, having pointed out the mess following the invasion of Iraq and Libya asks, ‘Have you heard anybody, whether the UN, America or Britain or others, talking about what they’re planning for Syria for after? After mentioning the invasion of Iraq as the cause of the chaos in the region, Vincent wants to know what the post ISIS plan is.

Malik comes back with, ‘The problems with a country like Iraq and Syria is that Kurds, Shiites, Sunni, Pershmarga and all these disparate groups, and in Syria as well…with all the different tribes, ethnicities and minorities, Alawites etc, have all been pushed under the surface by long standing dictators and that’s how we got into the situation in the first place. We didn’t get into this situation because America invaded Iraq. We got in this situation because Saddam Hussein has inflicted an artificial uniformity on Iraq for decades as Bashar Assad is doing now’.

Buried inside is an exoneration of the US. However, the point of a suppressed polyethnicity is valid.

And they continue in this fashion until Vincent says, ‘the bottom line is about democracy’…’and if the foundation are to do with the lack of democracy…look at the Russians. While I condemn the West in their approaches…The Russians as well. Let’s have this Syrian man. He has to be there. But he’s not a democrat. In the first place that’s why his people were trying to agitate for some rights. So unless we try and ask these people…we won’t get that answer. It’s a mess’.

And so, the concluding ‘it’s a mess’, not only applies to the situation in Syria and Iraq, it also summed up the studio conversation. Other points were made by the four experts but the short transcripts indicate the incoherence of thought, the knight’s move thinking, the pitiful state of analysis and dreary arguments, bluffing and hazy evasiveness. All of these pointing to lack of grasp of the subject at hand.

The most obvious and glaring omission made in the program was the complete failure to mention the establishment of the Federation of Northern Syria formerly known as Rojava, the fight by the forces of the YPG and YPJ against the Caliphate, and the establishment of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Syrian Democratic Council. These political and military organisation, have combined all the ethnic minorities of the region in a remarkable and tenacious fight against ISIS, whilst creating Confederal stateless grass roots democracies throughout eastern Syria.

The participants in Deadline London either through ignorance or deliberate omission, magicked this momentous political movement into the vacuum.

It is to be acknowledged that the current conflict in the Middle East is complex and thus it was shameful for the BBC not to have assembled real experts, of which there are a considerable number. Commentator who have an in-depth understanding of what actually is going on in Iraq and Syria. Instead they assembled people with a wafer-thin comprehension.

Before going back to ‘the vacuum’, it is perhaps looking at some of the more illustrious statements made by the panel and add some brief comments.

ISIS is indeed losing ground and its military capacity is being degraded. In 2014, Daesh exploded across Iraq and Syria thanks to the disintegration of the Iraqi Army before a tiny handful of ISIS fighters. Assad aided this by releasing imprisoned Salafists from his gaols. The Caliphate spread quickly into northern Syria and reached the Turkish border before meeting their match in the Kurdish population of Rojava. The forces of Rojava, made up of Kurds and other ethnic minorities and with support of US air power began the fightback three years ago. Not ‘just over a year ago’. The major force in the fight against ISIS were the militias of the YPG and YPJ of Rojava. They clawed back territory from the Caliphate whilst Assad was crushing the democratic uprising against his sectarian and despotic rule. And then the forces of the SDF were responsible for chasing ISIS and displace them from Taqba and now Raqqa and Deir ez Zor provinces. And this was done despite the assistance of Turkey for Daesh. Only of late has Assad aided by the Iranian PMU militias, Hezbollah and Russian firepower been able to make advances against Daesh and in doing so is re-establishing his dictatorship over the Syrian people.

When Michael Goldfarb was asked the nonsensical question of what the strategy was, he might have asked Shaun, ‘Whose strategy?’. This would have made more sense than his answer.

There are in fact numerous strategies in play depending on the protagonist. The problem is that the strategies are at once conflicting and sometimes tactically contingent and are placed within a complex geopolitics.

To name but a few of the strategies.

America wants an end to ISIS whose spread was a result of its stratospheric and catastrophic failure in invading Iraq. Assad wants the whole of Syria back. Russia’s support of Syria seeks to halt the erosion of its geopolitical influence. Turkey wants to continue its genocidal policy towards the Kurds and says it will not tolerate the continued existence of Rojava. The Gulf states want Assad out. The KRG which is in the pocket of Turkey seeks an independent state. Iraq, Turkey, Iran and the US oppose a Kurdish secession from Iraq while Russia remains silent on the issue. The Syrian Kurds and the Syrian National Council seek a non-separatist Confederal solution.

And to answer Vincent’s ‘Have you heard anybody, whether the UN, America or Britain or others, talking about what they’re planning for Syria for after? It was not apparent if he knew about the peace initiatives.

There have been initiatives from the Great Powers to broker a peace. As the various forces battle on the ground, the Geneva and Astana Peace Initiatives are proving to be ineffective. Virtually every player in the Syrian Civil War political and ideological spectrum, whether they have set foot in the country or not have been invited. The Rojavan Kurds, however, have not been asked to either and the SNC, though invited, will not take a seat if the PYD/Northern Democratic Federation is excluded. Rojava and the SDC/SDF have never been afforded political recognition by the US despite their military collaboration and the gigantic sacrifice of the Kurds and their allies. Thus there is a political impasse.

The conflicting strategies, the peace initiative quagmired and no obvious timescale to the complete eradication of Daesh makes for post ISIS planning impossible for most of the sides.

An Endgame of sorts might be approaching in Syria. The Russian/Assad bloc has found second wind. The American/SDF forces who are close to defeating ISIS have taken Raqqa. The two sides now face one another across the Euphrates river. There have already been clashes and warnings issued on either side. The emboldened Assad regime has recently announced its intention to spread its military campaign to include the encircled regime-held enclave in Al-Hassakah. This is a confounding factor. The truth of the stated threat will only be known if it really does materialise in October. It would represent the first regime action to threaten Rojava. It would bring Russia and the US into direct conflict and could force a negotiation.

A prediction is doubly difficult because of the rapidly changing situation and unexpected turns in events. There are players also who have yet to play their hand. There are recently developing events that have yet to unfold.

Finally, the question of the ‘vacuum’ needs to be examined.

The protagonists brought up the question of democracy, colonial legacy, ungovernability but out of ignorance or omission could not see the elephant in the room – the unspeakable truth of the success and promise of Democratic Federalism in Syria.

Following the First World War, the imperialistic division of territory between Britain and France, sanctified by the Sykes-Picott Agreement, the adjustments enshrined in the Cairo Conference and Treaty of Lausanne, created the modern Middle East. Artificially lumping peoples together into multi-ethnic states ruled by despotic central authorities, accepting genocidal policy and suppressing diversity, expunging the language and culture of minorities to established a bleak norm. These mores were accepted by the post-colonial regimes and formed the basis of racist homogenising policies, discriminatory behaviour and cycles of resistance and repression.

During the course of the Damascus Spring in 2011, Kurdish region of Northern Syria, led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) embarked upon a Third Way. The Assad regime, was opposed by a popular grass roots democratic movement throughout the country, and central government had lost credibility and was just clinging to power.

The conventional description of a political vacuum refers to the loss of centralised political and state power within a geographical area. Implied within this definition is the idea that it is a bad thing, and there are indeed many negative historical examples.

Within the context of Syria, however, the power vacuum allowed the flourishing of a sensational democratic movement throughout the country. Assad was out and in came widespread political debate in local councils, citizens initiatives, a flourishing independent press, radio stations, artistic expression, women’s movements and resistance to the repression of the Ba’ath Party. So this vacuum allowed a progressive democratic movement to explode. The response to the fledgling democracy was brutality. In response to the Assad-regime’s repression there followed the phases of militarisation of the conflict, the arming of the Salafists, the spread of ISIS, the entry of the world and regional ‘players’. And, tragically, the crushing of a huge progressive movement that had flourished within the vacuum.

The Kurdish Third Way envisaged a different solution. They did not side with either the current regime or an opposition which waived democratic and liberationist principles. The PYD envisioned a decentralised federal structure for Syria and put forward the guiding principle of Democratic Confederalism and Democratic Autonomy as a strategy.

Once again, exploiting the vacuum, left by the retreat of the Ba’athists, the people of Rojava built a polyethnic, direct grassroots democracy which championed women’s rights and respected people’s of all creeds. The popular militias of the People’s Protection Units and the Women’s Protection Units launched a formidable counter-offensive against the invasion of Daesh and have been the most effective and successful combatants against it.

Rojava declared its de facto autonomy in 2012. It is not officially recognized as a political entity by the government of Syria or any international state or organization. Not even the United States. Within the Syrian opposition, there are attitudes ranging from suspicion to out-and-out hostility up to and including military attacks on its territory.

Nesrine Malik clearly asserted that in the wake of the defeat of ISIS there is nothing to replace it in these ‘ungovernable’ areas. She klaxoned her ignorance and there were no correctives from anyone else in the studio.

Rojava had spectacular local successes. Rojava had clearly proved that Kurds, Arabs Syriac-Assyrian, Armenians, Circassians, Chechen and Turkmen can co-habit. It has made plain that religions can be respected without sectarianism. It is showing that ordinary people can administer their lives without resort to a dirigist state. And the revolutionary process has demonstrated the leading role that women have taken in forging this new polity.

From the original three Cantons of Jazira, Kobane and Afrin, there has been a gradual accretion of Confederal Democracy throughout northern and eastern Syria. The Manbij and Shabba regions have joined the Rojava experiment, as have the Yazidis.

As the Syrian Democratic Forces chased ISIS from its territories, the Caliphate was replaced by local self-governing communities facilitated by the efforts of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC).
The SDC has been in active discussion and dialogue for years with sympathetic political organisation, community and tribal leaders, women’s organisation, youth groups and the population of villages and town. The SDC political initiatives and the promulgation of the principles of autonomy and confederalism has been successful in bringing rationality and peace to the region formerly under the control of the Salifist Caliphate.

Weeks and months of work went into shaping the post-Isis administration in various towns and localities to ensure everyone was on board. As an example, discussions have been taking place over the future complexion of Raqqa for the past nine months now. Malik was oblivious to this monumental work.

Everywhere the SDF has routed ISIS, there has been the immediate seamless implementation of self-governing civil administrations. The ungovernable are governing themselves. The vacuum is non-existent and in the wake of ISIS has come a flask full to the brim of Democratic Confederalism. It was unfortunate that none of the experts had even a rudimentary grasp of this process.

Being invited onto a current affairs program to just wing it and showing no evidence of even having boned up on the subject is a poor do. The BBC obviously thought it was acceptable to ask these amateurs to the table instead of real experts with real knowledge. Why did we have to suffer a stumbling wafer thin comprehension of the legacy of historical events, current events and an adolescent understanding of the actualities on the ground? Why didn’t Shaun Ley do some background? Why was the role of the forces of Rojava and the SDF studiously ignored?

The bottom line is that you have to agree with the panel that there was a vacuum. But it was not in Syria. The vacuum was actually in the Dateline Studio. It’s unfortunate that we have to suffer ‘this sort of thing’

Recently the Henry Jackson Society has seen fit to publish a report claiming that foreign fighters joining the YPG/J have actually joined the PKK. My blood has been boiling ever since, because of the amount of inaccuracies it contained.

I wrote to the society pointing out the errors they had made with regards to my son Kosta. They never had the decency to respond. The sad thing is that they are supposedly a think tank that influences government policy If they have made so many errors with regards to my son what other ones are there and how far can they actually be trusted? I’d like to think that the government has more sense than to believe anything that comes out of this society however my confidence is zero. Wasn’t the pretext for the war with Iraq based on a dissertation? Just goes to show, huh? It appears that this society is currently under investigation by the charity commission and has no transparency as to funding. Makes you think…

This is exactly how fake news is propagated.

Here is what they said about Kosta. (The full report is available here: http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/3053-PYD-Foreign-Fighter-Project-1.pdf)

KONSTANDINOS ERIK SCURFIELD
Codename: Heval Kemal
Date of birth: 22 September 1989
Date joined YPG: December 2014
Date of death: 2 March 2015
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Place of origin: Barnsley, Britain
Occupation: Military
Kurdish descent: No
Military background: Yes
Prior militant ties: None known
Konstandinos Scurfield, often known as “Kosta”, had been artistically inclined in high school, and expressed a desire to be an actor. At 20 years old, he changed direction and volunteered for national service in Greece – something made possible by his Greek background. Scurfield served six months, mostly consisting of sentry duty. After returning to the UK, he joined the Royal Marines and excelled as a battlefield medic. Scurfield’s mother says her son told her on Christmas Day 2013 that he was going to “go to Syria and help” because “the Kurds are dying and our government’s doing nothing”. Scurfield resigned from the British military in September 2014, got in contact with a YPG recruiter through the Facebook page for the Lions of Rojava unit, flew to northern Iraq, where the PKK retains its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains, and was soon in battle in Sinjar. According to a man known as Macer Gifford, a British YPG operative (profiled in Section 3.3), Scurfield “had no time for people who didn’t believe in the cause”, and became agitated about foreign fighters who came to Syria and did not heed the instructions of the YPG. Scurfield was killed in an IS ambush near Tel Hamis, a key town from which the YPG had expelled IS on 27 February 2015. Pro-PYD/YPG activists in Britain relayed confirmation from Jordan Matson (profiled in THE FORGOTTEN FOREIGN FIGHTERS: THE PKK IN SYRIA

Here is my response.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you with grave concerns about a recent report posted on your website titled: ‘The Forgotten Foreign Fighters: The PKK in Syria’, published on your website on the 18th of August.

In this report there is a profile of my deceased son Erik K Scurfield. I am sorry to have to inform you there appears to be an absence of academic rigor in the research done by the author, leading to errors that can only highlight a lack of professionalism in your Society.

The author states that Kosta left the British military in September. This is an error. He actually left the British military quite a bit after that. A bit of real research will soon establish exactly when.

The author states that Kosta landed in Sulaymaniya airport and uses this to make a massive, unevidenced inference that he must therefore have joined the proscribed terrorist organisation PKK. The author seems to have based this on the fact that Sulaymaniya airport is in ‘close’ proximity to the Qandil mountains which is where the PKK is based. If one is to accept this argument (that proximity to a place means he must have therefore joined the faction that is based there), then it stands to reason that he joined the Kurdish PUK based in Sulaymaniya, or the KRG Peshmerga based in Erbil which is closer to Sulaymaniya than the Qandil mountains. Since this is very weak argument based on the sort of illogical leap that one wouldn’t even expect to find in GCSE essay, I am surprised to find that a so-called reputable think tank could countenance it. It is quite clear to even the meanest intelligence that the Qandil mountains are over 100kms away from Sulaymaniya and as this map of ISIS positions shows, in 2014 when Kosta joined the YPG, travelling through Northern Kurdistan was likely the only safe, and prudent, way into Northern Syria. It is not evidence of an ideological and military link to the PKK.

The author of this report then also infers that the use of the word ‘cause’ that Kosta allegedly used, indicates a link to the PKK. I’d like to point out that 1) there is no evidence that my son used this word at all, 2) that it is actually third hand information – (someone said that someone said that someone said) and that a sound academic researcher should, at the very least, have tried to contact the original speaker (Macer Gifford) in order to ascertain the truth behind the statement. Reading the report as written by Mr Matt Blake, (cited by the author in the bibliography), will soon show that the ‘cause’ referred to by Macer Gifford is the fight against ISIS terrorism. Even without that, how can any report purport to be serious when it relies on hearsay? Finally, there is clear evidence, spoken by my son, recorded in his own voice and available widely in the public domain that his sole motivation for going out to Syria was to fight ISIS. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAKP2EAMA-g where it is clear he was joining to fight ISIS. It would take some extreme mental gymnastics to allege otherwise.

The author states that the PKK and the YPG are the same organisation. He doesn’t pose this as a theory and provide arguments, which would be a sounder academic approach, instead he states it as if it is a fact.

I would like to point out that currently British law does not support this. Under the current status quo, the PKK is proscribed and the YPG is not. These two organisations have different names, exist in different countries and are fighting different battles. The YPG itself, and its political arm the PYD, clearly state that they are not part of the PKK and have distanced themselves from it in the past.

YPJ fighters. (Photo taken from http://kurdishquestion.com/article/3966-modern-feminism-why-we-should-learn-from-kurdish-women)

My son was very careful, researched the YPG thoroughly, and was actually thoroughly investigated, in turn, by the British military and the Scottish anti-terror police before he went to Syria. To claim that my son joined the PKK is to impugn not only his memory but also the investigative abilities of both these organisations. Stating that something is a fact does not make it so, as so many politicians have recently found to their dismay, however let’s imagine, for a moment, that this is correct and that the two organsiations are one and the same. Given the sacrifices, the lives lost, the ground support that the YPG have given to the coalition and the wonderful progress made by the YPG in the fight against the terrorist caliphate cult of ISIS, it would seem to indicate a pretty good case for the de-listing of the PKK. Instead the author suggests the criminalisation of the young people who have gone over there to support democratic values, gender equality and the right of human beings to live free of oppression.

It disturbs me that a reputable organisation should endorse a report that contains errors, misdirection, and badly evidenced and argued points, and as a result is contributing to the spread of fake news. I am further disappointed that the researcher seems to have forgotten a basic tenet of research and that is the importance of primary source material. He has made no attempt to contact any of the relatives of the deceased men he mentions, or speak to the people he accuses to get a balanced, unbiased viewpoint, and seems to have indulged in a sort of spurious cut and paste academia that is shameful. What I also find nauseating and rather disgusting is the author has put these fighters and, more importantly, their families at risk from ISIS. It is true that ISIS could do its own internet research and find out the information, but the author has provided a handy directory of names and other information that makes it all just that bit easier for them.

I look forward to hearing from you soon about the action you’re proposing to take to amend the errors and misrepresentations in the section about my son. If you choose to leave this factually erroneous report on your website then please respect my right to reply and post this letter- in its entirety, with no amendments, where it can be seen in conjunction with the report.

I was recently able to meet with some government officials and put my questions to them.

First of all I’d like to express my appreciation for living in a country where I can get involved in political protest, without being arrested and where the authorities are prepared to put time and effort into hearing me and my concerns. My sincere thanks go to the British government for giving me the meeting, for not being patronising and for treating me with respect. Also for answering my questions with due care and attention particularly those questions regarding the progress of ISIS, the role of the UK in Syria and, in particular, why the UK will not engage with the Rojavan Syrian Kurds and consistently denies them any support.The primary reasons for the UK’s reluctance to help the Rojavan Kurds in their struggle against ISIS, as expressed to me by government officials, seem to be these:

There have been human rights abuses in Northern Syria- carried out by the Kurds

The YPG/J recruits 17 year olds

The YPG/J is linked to the listed terror organisation the PKK.

Let’s look at their first argument.

First of all let me make clear that my views are that any kind of abuse, torture or deaths in custody are inexcusable. So by all means let’s refuse to talk to any country that has such human rights abuses.

Going by what I was told therefore, the logical assumption is, (since we don’t talk to, or negotiate with, organisations and governments that commit human rights abuses) none of our allies will be guilty of this.

Sadly all these links are simply the tip of the iceberg. Go look for yourself. See what our UK ally Turkey is doing to its own citizens right now, at the time of writing, in Cizre, for example.I feel quite confident at this point in time that any illegal actions carried out by Rojavan Kurds are not state sanctioned (unlike what appears to be happening in Turkey) and if people are accused of committing heinous acts then they will investigated by the Kurdish government, just as British citizens would, presumably, in similar situations.

I am not claiming that the links or my research are exhaustive and I’m not intending to point a finger at countries or to argue one way or another about whether or not the YPG/J are guilty of the allegations.

All I’m saying is that there’s en element of hypocrisy in the excuses made by the UK government and it should not hide behind such a paltry excuse when we can see that it has long and, dare I say it, seemingly comfortable liaisons with many countries with deeply concerning human rights records.

This is not a reason not to talk to the YPG/J UK so please- pull the other one!

Regarding the second point: The YPG/J, as far as I am aware, does not have a conscious, active recruitment process focussed on youngsters. Where the authorities are made aware, youngsters are sent home. However, given the upheaval, does everyone have documentation that can clarify age? And what would you do if you were sixteen and nine months and your whole family had been beheaded while you were visiting a relative in a different village? Would you not be inclined to say, ‘I’m going to go after the people who did this so that I can stop it happening to someone else?’ Maybe you’d be inclined to say, ‘No-one is helping us defeat ISIS. No other countries are helping. I guess I just have to help myself!’ What else is left?

The bottom line is that if the UK had offered help earlier, maybe seventeen year old kids wouldn’t need to pick up weapons to defend themselves.

The final point I want to make is about the allegation that the YPG/J is linked to the PKK. Maybe it is but that doesn’t change the fact that it isn’t the PKK. It isn’t a listed organisation.It is a legal organisation.Either list it or get off your butts and help. Hey, who knows, if they had help from elsewhere perhaps they wouldn’t need to be ‘linked’ to the PKK!

My final point is that Britain is talking to countries like Iran, maybe in the future even to Assad and has helped facilitate dialogue with ‘terrorist’ organisations in Northern Ireland. Surely talking to the YPG/J and their political arm the PYD should be easy in comparison since they are NOT LISTED.

UK- please! Stop with the lame excuses and help Rojava, the YPG and YPJ.

How do you find words to describe the atrocity? The indiscriminate killing? The inhumanity? The trauma and terror? How do you get through the loss without getting caught up in negativity and hatred?

You rise above the evil as much as possible. You focus on the moving stories of light and hope that come out of the darkness. Stories of survival and humanity, of bravery, compassion and of sheer heroism.

You don’t let evil win. You lose fear and you act. You stand up and shout out against extremism, against inaction.

The evil we face now may not be quite the same as it was then – it has mutated, becoming better organised, harder to pin down and more pervasive. It has become even more barbaric if that is possible and is responsible for the wholesale slaughter of civilians right across Syria and Iraq. Spare a thought for the brave men and women in Northern Syria and Iraq battling against this terrorism every day and for the many victims who are at the mercy of an invading militia made up of citizens from all over the world, including Britain.

For as long as this caliphate cult flourishes everything that underpins our society is at risk. Our lives are at risk.

It makes me feel even more driven to make a difference, and hopefully see the end of ISIS and other forms of harmful extremism. Join me in any way you can. Write to your MPS, sign the petition, ask your MPs to table a question in Parliament. Make sure you understand what’s going on in Northern Syria and see if you can get your MPs to acknowledge the efforts of the YPG and YPJ. (Northern Syrian Kurds- they are already acknowledging the Iraqi Kurds and supporting them). Push our governments to provide the YPG and YPJ with the help they need.

For letter templates and the petition scroll down to previous posts, or look in the side bar.

Don’t be cowed. Shout out so that the victims are not forgotten and evil is defeated- it’s the very least we can do because if ISIS wins in Northern Syria the consequences do not bear thinking about..

My response:

The olive tree planted on Kosta’s grave is growing.

This is an interesting article and it is really encouraging to see that the local MP cares enough to take a personal interest in constituents’ issues and that you care enough to report on them. However there are some assumptions that I feel should be challenged and some errors on the part of the MP that I also feel should be corrected.

First of all the implication in your headline, that because this lad is autistic he is automatically vulnerable and incapable of making up his own mind is rather troubling. It also seems as if you are defining him by his disability, (and there is some doubt about whether he has autism. It appears he was diagnosed when he was nine years old and then was told that he didn’t have autism when he was seventeen- personal communication with his mother). Did you actually try and contact the lad himself to ask him for his opinions? If you have to use this lad’s disability in an emotive headline why not: Autistic man joins fight against ISIS to protect humanity? Or better still go for Newark lad stands up for British values and resists ISIS alongside Rojavan Kurds.

Please don’t diminish his courage because of his disability.

Second, put simply, the Peshmerga are the fighting arm of the Kurds in Iraq mostly. The Kurds in Iraq are a patriarchal, tribal based society. The YPG is the male fighting arm of the Kurdish people in Northern Syria (Rojava). In contrast to the whole of the rest of the Middle East these Kurds are working towards a democratic society and have active gender equality, freedom of religious expression and active pro-gay rights policies among others.

There definitely seems to be some confusion in the mind of the MP and in many media reports between the two different countries. Perhaps it would help if everyone could get that straight for a start. If the MP is indeed asking the British government to ask the government of the Peshmerga to stop people joining the YPG then that’s a bit like Italy asking France to stop people joining the British military in Catterick.

The YPG (or Lions of Rojava) have a vetting system when they recruit and if they think that a recruit is in any way a liability or vulnerable they would either not allow them to join or would send them back. They are, indeed, trying to do this with the actor Michael Enright. If this lad’s mum feels that her son is at risk then she has a way of contacting the YPG and asking for him to be sent back. It is my experience that they would do this at once since they value every human being and try very hard not to have losses. A liability or a loose cannon on the battlefield would put their own people at risk. In addition this lad must have passed the one month training the YPG gives all its members or he wouldn’t still be there. This indicates a certain level of capability on his part.

Finally I note that the reader is told that Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with the ‘brave Peshmerga’. Indeed, are these the same brave Peshmerga who abandoned the Yezidis to ISIS so many months ago? The Yezidis who were rescued from Mt Sinjar by the YPG including the foreign lions like my son (Erik also saved someone’s life and carried him off the mountain to safety)? The Yezidis still remember the foreign lions who helped save them. As we’ve already established, the YPG are not the same as the Peshmerga and so far there is little to no evidence that Britain supports the YPG at all. Little to no aid is reaching the refugees from all minorities societies, who have found sanctuary in Rojava with the Syrian Kurds. There is no aid for the rebuilding of Kobane and other cities destroyed by ISIS. There are no weapons reaching the Rojavans, not even night vision goggles or defensive items. Yet these brave men and women still fight, in trainers and home-made armoured vehicles. They fight against an invading militia that is made up of British citizens, Iraqis equipped and trained by us who have defected, as well as other people from all over the world who share their terrible ideology. Then you ask why our lads feel they need to go out there and imply that they have been lured. Seriously?

No-one wants British boots on the ground but for as long as the British government ignores the YPG/J and its role in the battle against ISIS the more likely we will be to have a British civil war going on in someone elses’ back yard, in which the two ideologies- that of ISIS and that of a tolerant and democratic Britain, will be tested. All we ask is for the government to open a dialogue with the Kurds in Syria (we’re already helping the ones in Iraq) in order to see how they can be supported (night vision goggles for instance would make a big difference to their success against ISIS)

If your readers and any MPs want to find out more about the situation in Syrian Kurdistan and the fight against ISIS then they can visit www.kostasolivetree.blogspot.co.ukfor the links along the side of the page. They can also join my campaign called Kosta’s Olive Tree (look for the group on facebook), or sign the petition if they wish to make a difference. My campaign does NOT call for boots on the ground.

I’m terribly saddened this last week at the news of terrorist attacks in three separate countries all of them engineered by ISIS.There was an attempt at a chemical plant in France with the brutal beheading of the manager, the shooting of holiday makers on a beach in Tunisia that has resulted in over 30 deaths, and a suicide bombing of a Shia mosque in Kuwait with a loss of over 27 lives. The media has been filled with terrible pictures of pain and suffering and the stunned incomprehension of normal people who were doing nothing but go about their normal business when their world imploded. But while these images, of Tunisia in particular, have flooded the news reports, there have been ISIS attacks elsewhere, in which gunmen have shot and killed children, not just adult tourists and where the death toll has been over 150 adults and children. Here you see the same stunned incomprehension, the same dreadful grief on so many faces, but this time it’s Kobane, where there are so many ISIS terrorists that they qualify as an invading army, where the media coverage has been so scarce that it verges on shameful. The people in this town didn’t deserve to die any more than the people in the Mosque worshipping, or the people on the beach holidaying, or the man going to work. None of them deserved to die and I’m saddened that despite David Cameron’s rhetoric about stopping extremism, he still won’t enter dialogue with the Kurds in Rojava to see what Britain can do to help. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the people suffering at the hands of ISIS wherever they are. I will keep shouting for you in the hope that my voice will be heard at some point.Be wise, be brave, be strong.

Here is a letter that you might wish to adapt and send to your Senator if you live in the USA.Thanks to Don Weingarten for writing this.

I write to you to urge increased US military support for Kurdish forces in the face of the Islamist jihadi’s of ISIS.

Among the Kurds fighting ISIS are the Peshmerga, the security force of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), the People’s Protection Units, initials YPG and YPJ (a force solely of women) and military units of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

All of these, particularly the PKK, YPG and YPJ, are poorly equipped, and lack heavy weapons.

In addition, the PKK has been classified by the US as a terrorist group, in my opinion mistakenly. Thus US citizens, many of them military veterans, who have joined their fight, and anyone who contributes to their support, are at risk of legal sanctions by the US government.

In response to this I ask you to

1) Join Senators Ernst and Boxer as a sponsor of the Senate bill to provide US arms directly to the Peshmerga

2) Offer an amendment to the Ernst-Boxer bill providing arms also directly to the PKK, YPG and YPJ.

3) Offer an additional amendment to the Ernst-Boxer bill to insure that no legal action will be taken against US citizens who join or support the PKK, YPG, YPJ or any other Kurdish military unit in their fight against ISIS.

A few days ago, Ramadi the capital of Anbar Province, fell to ISIS in the face of failed resistance by Iraqi security forces.

Military success against ISIS has come only from the Kurds.

Indeed the Kurds have stood heroically almost alone against the ISIS onslaught.

We, the United States, despite our mistakes, overall have been the good guys. That’s our role. Time to act!

Are you sick of the apathy of western governments towards ISIS and its brutality? Write to your MP. This letter is aimed at UK politicians. I will post another one for the USA later. Feel free to copy and paste and/or adapt. If you get a response post below and let me know what it is.

Dear

I am writing because I am extremely worried about events taking place in the Middle East, particularly the murder of innocent civilians at the hands of ISIS. ISIS is an invading force that is brutally murdering ethnic and religious minorities while the countries of the west sit by and watch.

However the west has a collective responsibility, as many of the members of ISIS are recruits from western countries and it is these people who, against every value that is important to us, are killing the Yezidis and beheading people, setting fire to them while they are alive and selling girls into slavery. What logic are we using to allow this to continue? Why is the west and the EU not providing comprehensive support to the Kurdish people, particularly in Rojava, Syria? These people (YPG, YPJ) are actively resisting the invasion of their towns and cities whilst also trying to support the refugees displaced by ISIS activity. I am aware that there are some coalition airstrikes in Ithe area however these are limited in northern Syria. In addition to this there is no conversation with the people on the ground in Rojava, Syria. There is little help available for the support of refugees or the rebuilding of liberated towns.

At the very least there should a clear and open discussion of these issues. In the meantime perhaps you could answer the following questions for me:

Why is there no UN presence along the Turkish Syrian border to prevent ISIS from accessing supporters and supplies and also to investigate allegations of Turkish forces not only obstructing aid from getting to the Kurds but also actively supporting ISIS?

Why is there no protected aid corridor into Rojava to facilitate the access of the refugees to aid and also to help with the rebuilding of towns such as Kobane?

Why is there no dialogue with the YPG and YPJ to find out what they need to continue their resistance against ISIS? Why are we not in discussion with them and providing them directly with help?

Why has Silhan Ozcelik, a young girl of 17 been arrested and remanded in Holloway for trying to join the YPG/J, an unlisted organisation to which many westerns belong, some of whom have returned but have not been arrested.

Why is there no concerted effort being made to commit resources to tracing and returning the girls who have been sold into slavery to their communities? Among the men selling them into sexual slavery and raping them are British citizens yet little is being done to investigate the crimes that the returning men may have committed against civilians.

Why is there no effort to acknowledge the efforts of the PKK in freeing the persecuted minorities (such as the Yezidis from Mt Sinjar) and for working alongside all other Kurdish factions to liberate Kurdish cities from ISIS, particularly since its imprisoned leader has lately been active in promoting dialogue rather than terrorist activities.

Why is there no formal investigation into the allegations that Turkey is taking an unofficial yet active part in supporting the terrorist organisation ISIS?

How many more British people are to be shamed by the apathy of their government into going out there to act against ISIS and possibly dying?

Will you please take steps to raise these issues in Parliament and get them put on the agenda urgently?

I look forward with interest to your answers to my questions and a speedy reply.

Now that some time has passed since Kosta’s death, my family and I have given some thought to his principles and desire to help and have decided that we can’t stand by and do nothing while innocent people continue to die at the hands of ISIS/Daesh/IS/ISIL.

You must know about their barbarity- I don’t need to elaborate here, just perhaps to say that Daesh continues to sell women and girls into slavery, and execute through beheading, crucifixion and worse. They have a long term, stated plan to spread their ideology and system of government throughout North Africa and Southern Europe and into the UK and elsewhere. They are well resourced and don’t lack money or recruits. Mostly, at the moment they are being held back by the Kurdish people in Iraq and Syria. Coalition forces are supporting the Kurdish people in Iraq, through air strikes and the provision of some weapons, however in Syria, in the region of Rojava where my son was killed, the Kurdish people have much less support. In this region, where some of the worst fighting is happening, the men and women (because there are organised women’s units too as the Kurdish people believe in equality for men and women) only have one blanket between two soldiers, they are not allowed to buy weapons legally even though they have the resources to do so and I am told aid is being repeatedly turned back in Turkey before it can reach them.

Ashley Johnston
KIA Feb 23/2/2015

Let’s imagine, for a minute, a world in which these Kurdish people hadn’t mounted a resistance to Daesh. Let’s imagine that Daesh had walked into Northern Syria and completely taken over the area of Rojava and the area of Iraqi Kurdistan. Let’s imagine they had retained the oil producing areas completely and were sitting on all that money.

This success would have resonated with many extremists and perhaps been used as propaganda to ‘prove’ that their twisted ideology was good and righteous. This would have lent validity to their claims and increased their resources in terms of money and man power (neither of which they’re currently short of by the way, and you’ve got to ask where they’re getting it from). An increase in fervour and fire, manpower and money means that they would be consolidating their positions and ready and able to move closer to their ultimate goal. Aside from their expansionistic aims their goal is a world in which gay men and women will have been eradicated, women will be limited to their roles as broodmares and carers for men, there would be no music or theatre, no freedom of religious expression, books would be limited to their brand of religious treatises, art and history would be wiped out and, as we saw a group of 13 year old boys executed for playing football, it is clear that there would be no sport

The Kurdish people are slowing them down and even pushing them back, however the Kurdish people have few resources and are being obstructed by Western Governments. I am not advocating a boots on the ground approach but I am about to start a peaceful campaign to ask our government to be instrumental in securing UN monitors all along the Turkish-Syrian border and the opening of a humanitarian corridor via Turkey into Rojava, among other things. To this end I have set up a facebook group called Kosta’s Olive Tree and I wish to invite you to join if you are interested in expressing your abhorrence at the atrocities being carried out by this caliphate cult.

The very least we can do is continue to support those
still fighting the caliphate cult..

My aim is a good old fashioned letter writing campaign, a petition and a twitter campaign- that’s all, however I am hoping to organise this for maximum impact and to get it all happening within a certain time framework; hopefully June once the new UK government is bedded in. More on this will be posted in the group and on this blog, along with letter formats that people can use to copy and paste into emails etc. so that people would need to do the minimum. My aim is to make it so that the British government can’t ignore the issue any longer and that something is done to protect the people in Kurdistan and especially Rojava, where, uniquely to the Middle East they actively support women’s equality and fight for LGBT rights and where they believe everyone should be allowed to worship who they wish, if they wish and in their own way. Even without the obvious humanitarian need to stop this sort of horrendous atrocity happening the bottom line is that if the Kurdish people stop Daesh they serve all our interests and protect our society, which might be flawed but at least provides hope. It doesn’t matter whether you are British or not, you can still write to your MP and it doesn’t matter which country you live in- please still sign the petition. Please feel free to adapt my letters to write to your own government or your Euro MP as well.